Cylindrical articles, such as hollow, flexible wall, plastic bottles, have been decorated using hot stamping apparatuses for some time. One particularly useful apparatus is the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,207. The article is decorated on this apparatus by mounting the article to the apparatus and pressurizing the article; moving the pressurized article so that it makes contact with a strip of decorating material and pressing the decorating material onto the article by means of a moving die. As the die presses on to the article, the article is rotated so that the decoration occurs around the periphery of the surface.
The dies utilized in peripheral hot stamping apparatuses are generally made by forming raised indicia or designs on a sheet of silicon rubber and attaching the sheet to a metal plate. The configuration of the raised design will determine the particular decoration to be imparted to the article. Generally the height of the design is about 0.040 inches. Despite general satisfaction with the utilization of such dies, there are some drawbacks. For example, edges of the designs, due to their height, become worn as they are worked repeatedly across the article surfaces. Therefore designs having a lower height would be desirable from this standpoint. However, utilization of lower heights is not practical with present dies as the extra height is needed to assure good formation of the decoration onto the article. Another problem realized when utilizing present day dies is that there is a relatively long heat recovery time required. When an article is brought across the die, heat from the die is absorbed by the article. Due to the height of the silicon rubber design, which material is a poor heat conductor, a long reheat time is required to get the designs back to the temperature desired. Still a further problem with present day dies is that the entire article surface is contacted with the total die resulting in the entire article surface being heated. Such a heating places a high heat requirement on the dieing apparatus and also causes distortion in the printing.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a unique hot stamping die chase which will allow for the utilization of die which have high heat recovery and which are not subject to wearing of the corners.